Definitions

A picture speaks a thousand words, is how the saying goes. But trying to make an image speak one word, is tough. This week, i was to go into photoshop, and define three words using photos from the internet.

Black And White

This week I decided to take advantage of black and white photography.  When photographing in this genre, you must be careful of what you photograph.  Make sure that your photos look good in black and white, and you may have to add more contrast so the image is not too monotonous. Too much gray makes the photo dull.

Best:

Best + Top Ten:

Still Life

This week I steered my photography towards still life.  This type of photography is different from others, and takes time to set up.  You have to plan things out carefully, and manually create and adjust your subjects to your own interest. You also control the lighting.


Best:

Best + Top 6:

Macro

This week, I played with the settings on my camera and discovered a different type of photography: Macro. This involves getting up close and personal with the subject, and trying to get every detail possible. To get a good macro photo, it needs to be focused properly, and take up space. This makes this type of photography slightly harder.

Best:

Top Ten:

Context

This week, we had another assignment to get us used to the concepts of photoshop. We were to take a picture of our school, and add things into the photo to change it's context.  We could use bits and pieces of other images, and past them into ours.   We had to make sure the edges were clean and blended into the original, while also making sure the size differences were proportional.

People

This week, I decided to photograph people. I learned that when photographing people, it is best when you can capture their personality, and it isn't just frozen and posed. Plus, the photo shoot is a lot more fun when what you're doing is enjoyable. A lot of the times, my subjects would help me out on ideas, and other times, I would just try and capture moments where they didn't even notice the camera.

Best:

Aperture: f/4.0
Exposure: 1/160
ISO: 80
















Top ten:

Panoramics

This assignment was to teach us about the making of panoramic photos.  We had to overlap each photo, trying to keep them at the same exposure, focus, and angle.  Now a days, technology has advanced, and it is easier to make panoramics.  Before, you would have to layer each photo by yourself, but now the program just identifies sets of matching pixels.

Here is one of my best photos:

Nature Photography

This week, I decided to choose nature photography.  I took advantages of a few trips I have recently taken.  In photography of nature, photo's are easy to get boring.  You have to be innovative, and chnage up the angle, the exposure, etc constantly.  The subject doesnt move, you have to.

Best Photo:

Expoure: 1/400
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 80
















Top ten + best:

Animals Assignment 1

This week, I decided to follow the path of animal photography.  I went a dog park called Swift Run this weekend to take advantage of the good weather.  I managed to get a few pictures of dogs in action, showing off their many personalities.  It was hard trying to adjust to the fast pace of the animals, but after a while I caught on.  The pictures are fun, cute, and great to shoot (:

My Best Photo:

Photo info:
   Exposure - 1/250
   Aperture - f/4
   ISO - 160
















Top 10 + Best:

Retouch Demo

This assignment was used to get us familiar with new tools in photoshop.  It was also a way for us to see how editing a photo can make it better.  We went into photoshop, and used a photo of a car that was taken by a former student.

We blackened the background, tinted the windshield, and tried to remove some reflections. The editing changed the whole photo.

Motion Demo

Today, we had a demo on how to capture motion blur around a moving object by using panning.  We had to autofocus on the spot that we were to take the picture at.  Then, as the subject moved past, we would follow it with our camera, keeping the subject  in focus, but blurring the background. This helped show that the subject was in action, without making it unrecognizable.

Photography of Animals

This week, i am going to explore the act of capturing animals in photography.  I am going to do my best to show off the personality or nature they express.  I'm going to have to work with a wider aperture, and a faster shutter speed in order to minimize blur.

Some examples of the types of photograph's i am looking to capture are by:
g2pix
Pawel Maciejewski
and
Dominic.Sim

I am going to try and work with my two dogs, and my neighbors two dogs the most.  I will also look outside in the forest behind my house, and to my friend's cat. I hope to get good and cute photographs this week! (:

PopArt

This assignment was used to get us familiar with photoshop.  We were to take a photo, crop it, change the threshold, copy it, and change the hue and saturation.  It helped get used to the effects put out for us by photo editing applications.

Composition Assignment.

This assignment was about the composition of a photograph. The composition is what makes it up. If it's made of patterns, if there are lines that draw your attention, if the photograph has good balance, etc. We had to go out and try to use every composition element. Then, we picked our best of each, to post.

Photos:
Color: The girl and the green chair.
Perspective: Sleeping girl surrounded by balloons.
Pattern: Chain link fence.
Balance: Coffee bean smile and purple striped shirt.
Texture: Looking up a tree trunk.
Rule of Thirds: Girl by a lake, underneath a tree.
Depth of Field : Long grass in front of a pond.
Lines: Hands on a piano keyboard.
Symmetry: Legs and knee-high socks.
Framing: A cloudy sky surrounded by play-structure beams.
Space: Cat on a couch.





What I learned from this project would be that composition can really make or break your photograph. If you think a photo is good, just adding some elements of composition make it so much better. You don't always realize when you are using these techniques, but if you look back at some of your really good photos, you realized that it was good because you had been using those techniques subconsciously.